This invention relates generally to an agricultural pickup assembly having tines passing within tine guards and, more particularly, to a pickup tine mounting bracket with a flange.
Pick-up assemblies used in agricultural harvesting machines typically include a reel that is rotatable about a horizontal central axis. The reel comprises a plurality of parallel tine bars arranged for movement in a generally circular path around the central axis. Individual tines are connected to the bars and extend generally radially outwardly to lift crop material from the ground and convey it into a crop processing mechanism. The tine bars are connected to a central shaft by end plates, and as the reel rotates, the tines project through spaces or gaps formed between tine guards arranged side-by-side transversely of the reel. These tine guards are individually secured at their top and bottom ends to support members on the pickup.
Tines typically include a coiled spring portion adjacent to their mounting on the tine bar to allow the tine to flex upon contact with an immoveable object rather than breaking the tine. These springs ideally allow fore-aft tine movement. The tines may experience significant lateral loads during operation which causes spring deflection and may allow detrimental tine contact with the tine guards. Stiffening the springs sufficiently to withstand lateral loads without excessive deflection results in spring stiffness that is greater than necessary for the anticipated fore-aft loadings. Increased wire size, a common way to stiffen the springs, decreases tine fore-aft deflection cycle life (the primary tine movement orientation). Larger wire also requires greater lateral space for the tines which could require significant alteration of the pick-up assembly and is thus often impractical.
It would be advantageous to provide a modified mounting bracket for mounting tines to a tine bar that reinforces the tine spring coils to reduce lateral tine deflection without increasing the spring stiffness in the longitudinal (fore-aft) direction. Additional advantages would be realized by a modified tine mounting bracket that allows connection of exiting tine configurations to existing tine bar configurations with little or no modification of either. Still further advantages would be realized if the modified tine mounting bracket can be produced more economically than modifying the tine spring coil to accomplish the same objective.